Conference champs get preference

CHICAGO -- Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany says a model being considered for a four-team college football playoff would give preference to conference champions ranked in the top six nationally.

CBSSports.com reports that Delany spoke to a group of reporters during a meeting at the Big Ten headquarters in Chicago.

Various models for a four-team playoff will be considered by conferences during the next month. The focus will be on where and when the games will be played. After that is settled, how teams will be picked will be decided.

In the plan Delany discussed, a conference champion automatically would qualify for the playoff if ranked in the top six. If fewer than four conference champions were among the top six, the remaining spots would be filled by the highest-ranked teams.

"No system is going to be perfect," Perlman told ESPN.com. "That's one of the reasons why I think thinking about these four-team playoffs is fraught with disappointment, because there's still going to be controversy about who are the four teams as opposed to who are the two teams. No system is going to be perfect. If you don't like computers, then you'll think it's wrong. If you don't like committees, you'll think it's wrong. I think we'll just pick one, the system that seems to have the most fan confidence, and use it.

"I don't think it's possible to pick the two best teams in the country to play. In football, that just doesn't work."

Perlman said the "highest priority" is "to preserve the status of the Rose Bowl and our connection to it."

Information from ESPN.com's Adam Rittenberg and The Associated Press was used in this report.